It's hard to believe there's Hope
by Silent'E'IsaNinja42
Summary: Three months ago, something bad happened to the youngest member of the Elric family, little sister Hope. Nobody talks about it, but it most certainly hasn't been forgotten by anybody... except for the accused perpetrator. What, exactly is going on, and why is Ed so hell bent on finding Envy again? Sorry, I suck at summaries. AU


**Believe It Or Not, There's Hope**

**Silent'E'isaNinja42**

**Please don't hate, this is my first fic. For Mustang lovers, this is NOT a Roy bashing fic. It will all make sense eventually. Please just stick with it. Rated M just in case for Ed's mouth, and other things. This story has been in my head for about three years, but am stuck on how to put it together…**

**Chapter one**

Ed winced. This was what Mustang had called him in here for? Stupid. He shouldn't have come in here. He should have feigned sickness. This was gonna be a stupid mission.

"You'd better hurry up, Ed. Your train leaves in 30 minutes." That bastard! Mustang was gonna pay for this later, even more than for what he'd done to Hope. "Don't worry Ed. Little Elric'll be safe here with me."

"The hell she will, Mustang! Hope comes with me and Al always. We promised mom. And after what you did to her, she won't even talk! Don't you touch my little sister again, sleazebag!" Ed was furious. Poor sweet Hope. The only person with a sharper tongue than Winry no longer spoke because of Mustang. _Mustang would look really good in a noose_, Ed thought. Mustang looked slightly hurt; almost as if he had no idea what Ed was talking about. He'd had that look a lot since May. The stupid bastard, he should know that Ed wasn't that easy to fool. He looked as though he was gathering himself, recomposing, maybe, and then he spoke, a mournful look on his face.

"First of all, I'll be taking your bracelet back. I gave it to you, so it's my property. And second of all, you will treat your superior officer with respect, Fullmetal. Another infraction and you and your younger siblings will find yourselves split up and across country faster than you can get Armstrong to take off his shirt. " Ed blanched. He _wouldn't_. Oh, but he would. Ed bottled his anger, turned on his heels, and left.

Al and Hope looked at him from their perch on the bench in the hall. Questions brimmed in their gold eyes, twinned by Ed's own. He couldn't help but immediately soften at his sister's gaze. Fourteen year old Hope motioned her head towards the door and wrote on her miniature chalkboard,

**What'd He say?**

"We still have to go, Hope. But you can come with us." He tried to put a positive spin on this.

**I'm glad. Winry says hi, by the way. She wants you to have this.**

She held out an old battered wrench. Ed smiled.

"Brother, where's your bracelet? It was on this morning?" Al pushed the violently purple shock of her bangs behind Hope's ear as he said this. That chunk of hair was one of the only ways that someone could tell her and Ed apart.

"Bastard wanted it back", Ed growled.

**I'll make you a new one. I made the original.**

She was trying to cheer Ed up, and for her sake, he pretended she had. "I'd love that, Hopey." Her face darkened, and her box of multicolored chalk flew at his head. Al stifled a laugh, sensing how serious his sister was. Hope pulled out a piece of her auxiliary chalk and scribbled madly.

**Sometimes I hate you Ed. Don't ever call me that. It's what He called me.**

She bent her head in agitation, pointed at her watch, and shot out of the room. Her brothers caught on shortly, and followed suit. *********************** On the train, Hope pulled out a box of multicolored threads from her banana yellow vinyl backpack, which was shaped like an owl. She dexterously plucked out eight colors of thread, and started to weave. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, black, and back to red. Over and over until a bracelet had been made. She tied it on Ed's flesh wrist and went back to her box of threads. Red, black, brown, gold, tan, white, maroon, and wine and again. Soon, another bracelet was made. This one went on Al's wrist. She looked down at her own wrists and counted her bracelets. 12. She looked down at her ankles. 13 total. She needed one more to replace the one Mustang had ripped off her arm in May.

Pink, crème, olive green, chocolate, powder pink, white, pale green, and tan and again. Now she was even. One bracelet for every birthday, although that was debatable. She checked to see if Ed and Al were still seeping. They were, so she lifted up the side of her shirt a bit to check on the tattoo he'd left on her in May. The butterfly right under her ribcage was still there. The blue and gold of its wings haunting her. Taunting her.

She let out a soft cry, which woke Ed, who was next to her. He saw the butterfly for the first time and startled Hope by asking, "Did he do this to you?"

**Don't tell Al, please. Only you, He, and I know.**

The message was streaked with tears, and almost invisible, but Ed could still read it. He nodded, and pulled his little sister into a hug. "I won't tell, Hope." This cheered her a little, but she felt slightly dirty.

Al woke at the sound of Hope's sobbing. He confusedly looked at his brother, and then his sister. "What happened, Ed? Is Hope okay?"

Ed looked at his sister. "Yeah, Hope's fine. Go back to sleep, Al. You need your strength." Al shook his head in slight annoyance to his being left out of his sibling's plans. He tossed his hair and lay back down. Soon, he was snoring.

Hope joined Al shortly, and soon it was just Edward awake. He hummed a tune he remembered his mother singing from their childhood, and slowly drifted into sleep.

_I've heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the lord, but you don't really care for music, do you?... _

Ed awoke to the sound of a knife slashing at the air. Next to him, Hope was thrashing around in her sleep, kicking, and punched, and stabbing at the air around her in her sleep. Her mouth was open, and out of it came a haunting, guttural, scream. She wasn't saying anything, but it was the only noise she'd made in almost four months. Ed was happy, but he was worried for his little sister. He'd been worried since she got sick when they were four.

_It was the summer of 1903, Amestris time. (1984 American time.) Hope and Ed had just turned four, and Baby Al was almost three. They'd gone out to play, and they came inside with a wounded bird. Tricia had healed it and it lived in the house until she was absolutely sure it was completely recuperated. Three days after Tricia had healed the bird, Hope picked it up and proceeded to cuddle with it. Bad idea, her mother thought, but it was pushed to the back of her mind. _

_Three days later, Hope was sick, with something Pinako couldn't cure. She was slowly withering away, and she had come majorly close to infecting her brothers. A new device had recently been invented by a State Alchemist named Tucker; a cryogenic freezer. It froze anything alive until whatever was wrong with it was naturally cured by antibodies it would pick up from being out in the world. Trisha immediately found one for her daughter, who was declining so steadily, Pinako said she'd be dead within a matter of days if action wasn't taken, and soon. _

_Trisha placed the order, and waited by the door for two days until it came. She set it up in Hope's room, and placed her sleeping, four-year-old daughter in the large tube, laying her down. She turned on the tube, and she read the dials. Critical, the machine said. Trisha made it her routine to check the freezer, where her sleeping child lay, a blonde snow white. Gradually, the three Elrics began to notice the tint in Hope's hair changing slightly in two places. Her short shock of "bangs" next to the left side of her face, and a streak in her right ponytail began to turn a violent violet color. It deepened in color as the days went by, and they soon found out it was a harmless, and kind of cool, side effect from the Freezer. _

_Trisha looked at the gauge one day, about two years after Hope got sick, and saw something that made her scream in delight. Hope's vitals were back to normal. She pressed the release button, and Hope sat up, awake instantly. "Mamma?"_

Hope woke up later on that night on the train, wishing very hard that she was dreaming.


End file.
